With cyber criminals becoming smarter by the day, Phishing e-mails designed to make you part with sensitive information are also looking more authentic than ever. Poornima Swaminathan tells you how just being a little alert can make all the difference

Beware, don't fall prey to messages and e-mails promising freebies that flood your inbox. For, a widespread, well-networked online fraud could be at work, looking for gulible targets.

Phishing rackets, a growing crime in the cyberworld are increasingly duping innocent Internet users into revealing their personal, sensitive information and misuing the same.


Last month, an alert Navi Mumbai resident foiled a phishing scam by reporting the matter to the cyber cell. Basant Padhiary had received an e-mail, disguised as official communication from a private bank, asking for details like his username and password. Since he did not have an account with the said
bank, he identified the racket and immediately reported the matter to the police.

According to cyber crime experts, phishing aims at acquiring sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by posing as a trustworthy and genuine entity.
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This fraud is typically carried out through e-mails or instant messaging and often directs users to enter details on a fake website which appears almost identical to the legitimate one.

Though the number of phishing cases has seen a dip in the last year perhaps due to users becoming smarter and the massive awareness programmes by the Mumbai police the fraudstersu00a0 have become smarter too and you could be their next victim.

The cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police, which was launched in 2006, registered just 6 cases that year. However, the numbers had jumped to 76 last year and they will only increase.

"Cyber crime is on the rise andu00a0 even the educated class is falling prey to it," admitted Arup Patnaik, Mumbai police commissioner. "Our department constantly conducts awareness campaigns to warn the public to stay alert."

Experts say phishing is one area where ignorance is never bliss. "As long as there are gullible people around, there will be crooks exploiting them," said Vijay Mukhi, cyber expert.

Aided and abetted by technology, phishing attacks will only increase by the day. However, a little alertness is all it takes to beat the cyber criminals:

How the phishing racket works:

1 E-mails are sent to people by a group of cyber criminalsu00a0 posing to be an established legitimate enterprise

2 The e-mails try to scam the user into surrendering private information, which will be used for identity theft

3 They direct the user to a website where they are asked to give their personal information such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organisation would already have.

4 The website, however, is bogus and is set up only to steal the user's information.

5 By spamming large groups of people, the racketeers bank on at least a small percentage of them actually visiting the website and giving the information.

6 Phishing, which is also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, comes from 'fishing'. The idea of bait being thrown into the water with the hope some 'fish' will be tempted into biting it works here as well.

What you can do to stay alert:

1 Never trust strangers: Don't open emails from people you don't know. Set your junk and spam mail settings to filter out content from those not in your address book.

2 Double check with your bank: In case you get a mail from your bank asking you to reveal sensitive information online, call the customer care centre to check whether such a mail has indeed been sent.